Sections, Floors Plans

I couldn't get my second level floor plan because my model was corrupted so it only saved the first floor.

Crysis Environment.

Third Format of Presentation - Independant Study (Week 11)

I have chosen my third presentation format to be Crysis Wars. A game engine that will enable the user to explore and roam the concepts of Fallingwater - Reinvisioned. This format allows me to edit the terrain to how I want it to be, enabling me to replicate the surroundings of Fallingwater. Crysis also allows me to build my own architecture within the engine, allowing for a broad range of tools available to show to the user what the reinvention of Fallingwater will be.

As you can see from these examples, Crysis can simulate real-time environments. Allowing it to be accurately modelled and then modified. In relation to my project, I can use Crysis engine to make my environment and building, and then I allow the use to run around and explore the building, rather than having blueprints and drawings. The user can explore and feel the building out himself, without having to imagine it in their mind.

Restrictions is the technology, if Crysis runs on a low quality computer, the graphics and the feel of the game wouldn't be as high as it could be, thus not allowing the full potential of the Engine. I can program AI (Artificial Intelligence) to stand around the building, talking to each other to simulate the large open spaces where people are meant to converse and talk.


Test Model.

Materials - Studio Tasks (Week 10)

Ten textures that relate to my idea.

Frank Lloyd Wright > Fallingwater > Organic Architecture > Ecological + Individual > Nature > Organism.

Refining this task into smaller things, the essence of my work would be from Wright's ideas of Organic Architecture. Where Organic Architecture was defined as a way that promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishing, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.

So using ecological yet individual materials that reflect nature and life. Materials would be various types of stone, wood, brick, ceramics, glass. Keeping to the origins of Fallingwater, being built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains. The natural colours surrounding the architecture are cool pale yellows, cool greens, and the clear colour of the waterfall running beneath it.

My re-invention of my architecture would consist of the colours of pale yellow, the greys of the stone, white, some browns and clear glass.

Independant Study (Week 10)

Treatment of Form and Materiality in Space.


This looks further into the integration of Fallingwater with its surrounding environments. The strong emphasis placed on the harmony between man and nature from Wright's major influence of Japanese architecture. From the large rooms to the finer details of the house, the amount of work put into integrating the house with it's surroundings is outstanding. The fireplace hearth in the living room integrates boulders found on site which the house was built on. A ledge rock which protrudes through the living room floor was left in place to link the inside with the outside. The synthesis between nature and man is found even in the smallest details, like where the glass meets the stone walls there is no metal frame, the glass and its horizontal dividers were run into a caulked recess in the stonework so that the stone walls appear uninterrupted by glazing.

Where inspiration from site context is the idea and the space is the aspect.

A Quick Introduction into Brutalism

• Style of architecture which flourished from 1950s to mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.
• British architects Alison and Pether Smithson coined the tern in 53, from the French beton brut, or "raw concrete", a phrase used by Le Corbusier to describe the poured board-marked concrete with which he constructed many of his post-WWII buildings.
• Brutalist buildings usually are formed with striking repetitive angular geometries, and where concrete is used,, often reveals the texture of the wooden forms used in the in-situ casting?
• ASK TUTOR HOW THIS RELATES TO IDEAS/CONCEPTS OF FALLINGWATER

Organic Architecture

• Describes a way of thinking about design that transcends the common, everyday buildings around us. Ecological + Individual = Organic.
• Promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympthetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishing, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.
• "So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no traditions essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials..." - Frank Lloyd Wright, written in 1954
• "Using Nature as our basis for design, a building or design must grow, as Nature grows, from the inside out. Most architects design their buildings as a shell and force their way inside. Nature grows from the idea of a seed and reaches out to its surroundings. A building thus, is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of Nature." - Eric Corey Freed
• Freed regards each design as an organism and each component as an interrelated extension of that organism.
• It is not just about the buildings literal relationship to the natural surroundings, but how the buildings' design is carefully thought about as if it were a unified organism.
• Geometries throughout Wright's buildings build a central mood and theme.
• David Pearson proposed a list of rules towards the design of organic architecture. Known as the Gaia Charter for organic architecture and design. "Let the design:
• be inspired by nature and be sustainable, healthy, conserving, and diverse.
• unfold, like an organism, from the seed within.
• exist in the "continuous present" and "begin again and again".
• follow the flows and be flexible and adaptable.
• satisfy social, physical, and spiritual needs.
• "grow out of the site" and be unique.
• celebrate the spirit of youth, play and surprise.
• express the rhythm of music and the power of dance."
• Organic Architecture is not a style of imitation, but rather, a reinterpretation of Nature's principles to build forms more natural than nature itself. Just as in nature, O.A involves a respect for natural materials, blinding into the surroundings, and an honest expression of the function of the building.
• Wright's mentor Louis Sullivan said "form follows function", however Wright changed it to "Form and function are one", claming Nature as the ultimate model.
• Even though Organic Architecture does reflect on environmental concerns, it does embody the human spirit, transcending the mere act of shelter into something that shapes and enhances our lives. Even though Organic Architecture is just an expressing of individuality, it explores our need and connection to Nature.
• Nature is the basis of design. As Nature grows, so must a building or design. Nature grows from a seed, very much like an idea, reaching out and extending to our surroundings. Thus, a building is akin to an organism and mirrors the beauty and complexity of Nature.
• Resulting product is a unique and original form that reflects the personality and needs of the client that also happens to be environmentally friendly. These buildings often resemble organic creatures or plants, but are new and inventive.

Graycliff, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

http://travelphotobase.com/s/NYBFLWG.HTM

•  Sometimes called "The Jewel of the Lake", Graycliff is sited on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie with sweeping views of downtown Buffalo and the Canadian shore. Most ambitious and extesnive summer estates Wright ever designed.
• Three buildings integrated within a 34000m2 landscape. Sited high on a bluff with views of Lake Erie across to Ontario. Building is set amidst extensive grounds and gardens also designed by Wright.
• Largest building, Isabelle R. Martin house consists of spacious cantilevered balconies, expansive terraces, and "ribbons" of windows that allow the experience of nature from within and through the house. Niagara Falls is visible through the framed opening created by the cantilevered upper bridge and the stone veneered massing at each end of the home. Lower section consists of glass walls becomes a transparent pavillion-like center, allowing vistsing to actually see through the building itself to the lake beyond.
• The Foster House, originally designed as a garage with an apartment above for the chauffeur and his family. Wright was asked to expand the building, where the owners daughter and her family lived in residence there. Has strong horizontal lines echoing the lake beyond, with cantilevered balconies and numerous windows.
• Smallest of the three buildings is the Heat Hut.
• The buildings are constructed of stone found at the lake's edge, ochre stucco.
• Garden walls composed of the same stone and stucco as the Foster and Martin houses, enhance the horizontal planes of the architecture. Both gardens and grounds feature water elements designed by Wright, including a porte cochere that extends from Martin House, cantilevering beyond it's stone pier supports over a stone basin from which water flows into a large irregularly shaped pool. A broad esplanade connects the terrace to the cliff and lake on the west side of the house. It was designed to carry water, pumped from the lake down it's length and over the bluffs, completing the illusion of the lake flowing through. There is a sunken garden, a hidden garden, and stone walls in a "waterfall" pattern. Wright designed the landscape surrounding the buildings, with trees and shrubs complimenting the architecture.

The porte cochere extending from the Martin House, cantilevering beyond the stone pier supports over a stone basin from which water flows into a large irregularly shaped pool to form an illusion of the lake flowing through the house. The esplanade was designed to carry water, pumped from the Lake itself down it's length and over the bluffs, completing the illusion. All three buildings are constructed from the stone found at the Lake's edge, combining nature with the residence.

Further Research (Week 09 - Studio Tasks)

Site Context - The waterfall being integrated into the building, being built over the river, rather than away from it. Possibly talk about it's history? Why it was built? Does this link to the structural design of the house? How it was built to stay over the waterfall?

Circulation - Why each room was placed where it was, ccan quikcly talk about the uses of the house, before it being a weekend home from 1937-1963, now it's a museum opened to the public as of 1964

Wright said that he wanted them to live with the waterfalls, to make them a part of everyday life, and not just to look at them every now and then.

Before it was a museum in 1964, it was a family vacation house for the Kaufmanns from 1937-1963.

One of Wright's greatest masterpieces both for its dynamisn and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings. Influenced from Wright's passion for Japanese architecture, it is strongly reflected in the design of Fallingwater, particularly in the importance of interpenetrating exterior and interior spaces and the strong emphasis placed on harmony between man and nature. Tadao Ando states that "Wright learned the most important aspect of architecture, the treatment of space, from Japanese architecture." He found that same sensibility of space, but the additional sounds of nature appealed to him the most. Fallingwater is wellknown for it's connection to the site; how it was built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house.

The fireplace hearth in the living room integrates boulders on the site and upon which the house was built - ledge rock which protrudes up to a foot through the living room floor which was left in place to demonstrably link the outside with the inside. Wright intended hat the ledge be cut flush with the floor, but Kaufmann suggested that it be left as it was. Stone floors are waxed, while the hearth is left plain, alluding to the audience that the dry rocks protruding from a steam.

Integration with the setting extends even to small details. For example, where glass meets stone walls there is no metal frame; rather, the glass and its horizontal dividers were run into a caulked recess in the stonework so that the stone walls appear uninterrupted by glazing.

Analytical Concept - Treatment of Form and Materiality in Space.

Interactive PDF - Draft 2 (2 Page Spread)

http://www.mediafire.com/?rmti19xjloygw2d

Interactive PDFs - Draft 01

Fallingwater - Frank Lloyd Wright

Fallingwater, the name given to a unique and distinct house that is built over a waterfall. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Kaufmann family. This was built between 1936 and 1939. Fallingwater instantly became famous and now is a National Historic Landmark.

The reason why Fallingwater is so famous is because it is an illusion. The illusion is that the building doesn't even appear to stand on solid ground, stretching over a 30' waterfall instead. It was designed as a modern vacation house. Wright was chosen for this task because the Kaufman's son was fascinated with Wrights ideas. Both client and architect shared the common interest and love for nature. Ergo, Wright decided to make the waterfall part of the new house.

To the clients shock, their perception of the house was to overlook the waterfall, having a very nice view of it. However, the house was placed right on top of the falls, Wright saying that he wanted them to live with the waterfalls, to make them part of their everyday life, and not just to look at the environment encompassing them now and then.

Thoughts and ideas - FallingWater to me has a unique feel and approach to the building. It feels like it was building that sits into nature. There are a lot of buildings built in the environment, where it's just placed randomly, and the surrounding environments or the building itself don't compliment each other. However, Fallingwater compliments its surrounding environments. If it were to be changed, I would love to lower the building even more, submerge it into the waterfall, so the bridge becomes a tunnel, and you could walk through and the water surrounds you.

AR

Concept Developments

Creature - Based around ideas of Symbiote. Extraterrestrial organism. Referred to as a "living costume" because of the way the creature envelopes their hosts and can act as a clothing or a costume. When attached to a host, it empowers their natural abilities to the point where it exceeds that of normal members of the hosts' species. It is a very stealthy organism, which doesn't like attention.

These abilities include the following -

1. superhuman strength,
2. superior speed and agility, enhances other physical attributes,
3. enhanced durability and resistance to damage.
4. genetic memory, recalling information from previous hosts.
5. enhanced healing ability.
6. ability to negate damage caused by terminal illnesses and permanent injuries, but not actually heal it.
7. can expand to any size as long as they have to grow on such as a host or an object.
8. reacts to the thoughts and will of the host.
9. ability to shapeshift, form tendrils/fangs/simple bladed weapons out of their limbs,
10. ability to create storage portals inside of them.

However, with all the positives comes negatives also. Some weaknesses are weakened by intense sounds (sonic waves) and intense fires. It requires a host to survive or else it rots and perishes.

Environment -  Since the symbiote avoids attention, hiding away in corners and small spaces. The forest would be ideal, behind trees and shrubs, really messy and rugged. Ideal for the symbiote, and there's enough living organisms around to latch onto.

Structure -  Developing from this idea of the Symbiote and it requiring a host to survive, the structure is built into a tree trunk. The VitraHaus being made out of simple pentagonal prisms. The structure is an extrapolation of this. Putting simple pieces of geometry together and dumping it into a tree trunk. Like the Lord of The Rings movie, the idea of a staircase spiraling up past the tree trunk to a balcony that allows the symbiote to see down onto it's prey. The organisms that walk around below him.

Week 5 - Independant Study

The centered HdM draws the viewer into the poster. Our eyes first glance into the center of the page, looking for the largest piece of text/image so we can be alluded to what we are looking at. Then from the center the 4 images of buildings suggest that this is a movie/film/documentary about a firm abbreviated with HdM and their buildings they've designed. The same colour is used throughout the poster, simple blues and blacks with no real conflicting colours. Then the texts above and below are smaller then the center heading because it should not draw away the attention from the main point of the poster.

The design of my poster will be similar to this, a simple design dividing the page into 9 squares, the center text should be the largest font, surrounding the image with pictures to draw the viewer in more since if they are just glancing, they wouldn't want to read paragraphs of text, so it would be simple and to the point. Just showing my images, a few quotes at the top and bottom of the page to promote HdM.

Week 4 - Independant Study

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk1xjbA-ISE

If this was easy, and all this AR stuff was easier... Magic would be in anyones grasp.

Week 2 - Independant Study

 

Architects - Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzog_%26_de_Meuron

"A building is a building. It cannot be read like a book; it doesn't have any credits, subtitles or labels like picture in a gallery. In that sense, we are absolutely anti-representational. The strength of our buildings is the immediate, visceral impact they have on a visitor."

- Jacques Herzog

"Among their completed buildings, the Ricola cough lozenge factory and storage building in Mulhouse, France stands out for its unique printed translucent walls that provide the work areas with a pleasant filtered light. A railway utility building in Basel, Switzerland called Signal Box has an exterior cladding of copper strips that are twisted at certain places to admit daylight. A library for the Technical University in Eberswalde, Germany has 17 horizontal bands of iconographic images silk screen printed on glass and on concrete. An apartment building on Schötzenmattstrasse in Basel has a fully glazed street facade that is covered by a moveable curtain of perforated latticework. It is impossible to list here all of their noteworthy building projects."

"While these unusual construction solutions are certainly not the only reason for Herzog and de Meuron being selected as the 2001 Laureates", Pritzker Prize jury chairman, J. Carter Brown, commented, "One is hard put to think of any architects in history that have addressed the integument of architecture with greater imagination and virtuosity"." 

- Pritzker Prize Award Announcement

"[The work of Herzog and de Meuron is] among the very few architects whose work can be interpreted as an effort to regain architecture's original grounds. A search for primariness, for direct contact with the constructive essence of architecture, characterizes their work and differentiates it from that of others of their generation, with whom they diverge in their emphasis on originality." 

- Rafael Moneo, AV monograph on Herzog and de Meuron, 1996

It is from this information that I've gathered and siphoned through. That there is no similarities between the pieces of architecture that they have designed and constructed. Each piece of architecture being unique and different to the one designed before it. As Herzog said himself, the strengths in their building lies in the immediate, visceral impact they have on a visitor. Others have commented on their imagination, originality, and virtuosity. All this is reflected in their work.

Three buildings that I have a particular interest to is the VitraHaus, 11 11 Lincoln Road and 40 Bond Street.

The concept of the VitraHaus connects two themes that appear repeatedly in the oeuvre of Herzog & de Meuron - the archetypal house and the idea of stacked volumes. The showrooms are reminiscent of familiar settings usually found within residential pieces of architecture. The individual 'houses' have general characteristics which are tied with display spaces. These houses are conceived as abstract elements. With a few exceptions, only the gable ends are glazed, and the structural volumes seem to have been shaped with an extrusion press. These individual houses are stacked to a total of five stories high and cantilevered up to 15 meters in some places, the twelve houses, whose floor slabs intersevt the underlying gables, create a three-dimensional assemblage - a pile of houses which at first glance resembles an almost chaotic appearance.

http://www.archdaily.com/50533/vitrahaus-herzog-de-meuron/

11 11 Lincoln Road is a piece of architecture envisioned by Robert Wennett. It represents the collaboration of architects, artists and designers to create a unique shopping, dining, residential and parking experience for Miami. This building is constructed of concrete and glass, Jacques Herzog describes this building as pure Miami Beach - "all muscle without cloth". Each level of the sculptural parking facility is filled with natural light, creating successively striking vistas of the city. At the base, the retail spaces offer unobstructed access to a newly transformed public space. This building encompasses 40000 square feet.

http://1111lincolnroad.com

Floor plan - http://www.1111lincolnroad.com/Floor%20Plan.pdf

40 Bond Street is a reinterpretation of New York's downtown loft through Herzog & de Meuron's own avant-guard prism. With glass curtain walls now everywhere, Herzog and de Meuron have smartly avoided giving us another office-park-like matrix of hard-edged panels. Instead they have looked to the cast iron facade for inspiration and come up with a form that wraps the structure almost like protective cladding. These curved glass pieces (manufactured in Barcelona) not only pay a sly homage to downtown loft buildings, but they soften the overall effect of the modern geometry. It will be interesting to see how light plays off these glass spandrels. 

http://www.triplemint.com/triplemint/2006/02/40_bond_in_deta.html